Chris Dent resigns as Gloucestershire captain after four years in role

Club in transition with recruitment for head coach, performance director ongoing

Chris Dent has resigned as Gloucestershire’s captain after four years in the role.

Dent, 30, led the club to promotion in the County Championship in 2019 and was prolific with the bat, scoring 1087 runs in the season, but has struggled for form over the last two summers. He averaged 24.28 in the Bob Willis Trophy and 28.31 in this season’s Championship, even dropping down into the middle order in a bid to regain some form.

Dent’s recent struggles in first-class cricket have coincided with his reinvention as a T20 player. He had limited pedigree in short-form cricket before last summer but has scored his runs at a strike rate above 150 in both of the last two Blast seasons, playing under the club’s T20 captain Jack Taylor.

His resignation leaves Gloucestershire in a state of transition after a season of near-misses. They were well-placed to qualify for Division One of the Championship and the Blast quarter-finals but a week of disappointing results in mid-July saw them miss out on both, and they were beaten by Surrey in the Royal London Cup quarter-finals.

They have been coached by Ian Harvey on an interim basis throughout the season after Richard Dawson’s appointment as the ECB’s elite pathway coach in March and are due to appoint a performance director and a full-time head coach in the coming weeks.

James Bracey, the club’s vice-captain, will lead the side in their final Championship fixture of the season against Durham next week, with a full-time captain appointed once the vacant head coach position has been filled.

“I have decided that the time is right for me to step down as club captain,” Dent said. “It’s been a real honour to captain the club and it is something I will look back on with real pride.

“It has been a tough decision that I have been thinking about for a few months now, but I think it is the right decision for myself and the club. My aim when I took over the captaincy was to do all I can to help the team and the club progress and I am really proud of what we have achieved in the last four years.”